Micro-Volunteering

What is micro-volunteering?

Micro-volunteering is a form of flexible volunteering that often (but not always) takes place online. You can partake in it from pretty much anywhere and since there are no time commitments, you can do it when it suits you. There are lots of different forms of micro-volunteering, from letter writing to research participation, and it is up to you how you want to get involved. Since it can be done from anywhere and at any time, micro-volunteering may be attractive to students who find it difficult to commit to our other volunteering projects due to time and mobility constraints. It might also appeal to students whose volunteering interests are not represented in our current projects.

Micro-volunteering and DUSVO

At DUSVO, we only run one-off group micro-volunteering opportunities, but we are able to support students who wish to take part in it more frequently. Students are able to self-report and log their hours under our micro-volunteering opportunity. Please note that students are expected to find their own micro-volunteering opportunities and look into whether or not they are organisations they wish to volunteer with as we are unable to look into individual opportunities students choose to participate in.

You can find the micro-volunteering log your hours opportunity for the 2023-4 academic year here: Micro-Volunteering Log Your Hours (teamkinetic.co.uk)

How can you take part in micro-volunteering?

Since micro-volunteering is very individual to each volunteer, we would encourage you to look into your own volunteering opportunities. Please note that the following projects have not been subject to the usual processes we go through to ensure organisations and projects comply with our criteria. We encourage all students who want to be involved in micro-volunteering look into the organisations to make sure they are places you are comfortable volunteering for. One example of things you may want to look into is the organisation’s Public Liability Insurance. Please also ensure that you are not working one on one with children or vulnerable adults without a valid DBS (Disclosure Barring Service) check.

Below are some ideas and platforms we have come across:

Zooniverse: This is a platform allows volunteers to partake in research projects ranging from classifying animals in wildlife research projects to transcribing journals for historical research projects.
Write for Rights: This is a letter writing project run by Amnesty International focusing on facilitating mass-protest against human rights offenses. Each year, they choose a collection of cases to focus on and you can find the profiles on their page.
Missing Maps: This organisation aims to map inhabited places to help groups prepare and respond to disasters.
By My Eyes: A pioneering micro-volunteering project, Be My Eyes connects sighted people to visually impaired people to help with daily tasks that the visually impaired people request support for.
Positivity by Post: This organisation encourages people to send out care packages and positive letters.
Post Pals: This organisation encourages people to send letters to ill children in the UK.
FCancer: This platform facilitates volunteering for various cancer organisation using skills volunteers already have, such as photography and coding.
Hedgehog Homes: This page teaches you how to make homes for hedgehogs, please ensure you are complying with your rental agreement if you choose to undertake this project (this may be better to pitch to your college or friends/family members that own homes with gardens!).